This past weekend, noted architect Zaha Hadid celebrated the completion of Guangzhou Opera House – the colorful architect’s first completed project in China. Estimated to have cost 1bn Yuan, the 70,000 sq m cultural centre for the Guangzhou Municipal Government takes pride of place next to Wilkinson Eyre’s Guangzhou International Finance Centre.

Inspired by the organic forms of two fused boulders, the completed Opera House is almost identical to the renderings released by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2003. Slotting easily into place on the Pearl River, the low-rise sculptural construction presents a “unified vision of civic and cultural buildings on a waterfront setting” in modern and rapidly developing Guangzhou City.

With a 1,800-seat Grand Theatre, voluminous entrance lobby and lounge, multifunctional hall, and various auxiliary facilities and support areas, Guangzhou Opera House is the largest performance centre in South China and the third biggest theatre in the entire nation, slipping in behind Beijing’s National Theatre and Shanghai’s Grand Theatre.

Hadid’s signature sculptural style remains intact in her first Chinese project, as the protective form rises on the waterfront with abstract projections and acute angles softened by natural influences. Internally a repetitive geometric pattern skims the walls, as sharp-edged windows allow streams of sunlight to flood the cavernous lobby.

FAIR USE NOTICE:

This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This use constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the appropriate copyright owner.